Riptide
by TheObsessiveFreak
Summary: STAR Labs' particle accelerator malfunctioned, and it ruined many lives. Including Sage Dawson's. When her boat capsized and her fiancé was killed, her life changed forever: in more ways than one.
1. Chapter 1

**Let me know what you guys think! I have an idea for a new story and would love to see your feedback about this little flashback**

Nine months ago my life fell apart. I thought that everything was going so well- I was less than a year away from graduating Central City University, I was engaged to the love of my life, and we had everything set up to buy a townhouse in downtown Central City. Then there was a big explosion. . .and my entire life changed.

"I've always loved how the moon looks when it gets reflected off the water." Sage Dawson looked behind her to face her fiancé, who was sat behind her with his arms around her waist.

"Why did you think I suggested a picnic on the water?" Jason gave a soft laugh and pressed a kiss atop her head before he picked up his glass of champagne, turning his gaze to the sky. "You know," he began, "I actually think that this is the best place in all of Central City to be when that accelerator turns on. So many weirdos and nerds have probably flooded downtown."

Sage gave a laugh before she lightly hit his leg, picking up her own glass. "Hey, I may not be a physics nerd, but I'm a biology nerd to the core so you best be nice. To these people, this is the future. . .you'd be all over that place if it were a baseball arena or whatever."

"Field!" he corrected with a laugh. "And I suppose you're right, but I still say that the lake was the best idea I've ever had."

There was a loud noise followed by a very big explosion, and a giant stream of orange began to fill the sky. The water in the lake began to churn a bit from the force of the particle accelerator, and the two in the boat began to panic.

"Okay, again, not a physicist but I don't think that it was supposed to do that." Sage quickly tossed her glass in the water and stood up, rushing over to the wheel of the boat. "We need to get out of the water, Jason. I can already feel it start to ripple and that's never a good sign."

Jason stood and began to walk to the seat, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the fast-approaching wave of orange energy speed toward them. "Sage, I don't think we have that much time. We…we need to get- "

Speaking turned to screaming quickly as the boat capsized.


	2. Chapter 2

"What's your name and date of birth?

"Sage Dawson, July 10, 1990." Sage lifted her hand so the nurse could scan her patient bracelet. Today was the last day she would be in the hospital where she had been in and out of for the last three months.

"Alright Ms. Dawson, here is your last Bactrim and your Ibuprofen." The older woman smiled as she handed her the small plastic cup, and once Sage tossed both medications back and chased them down with water, the woman took back the cup and tossed it into the trash can. "Alright, your discharge paperwork has been completed so you're free to go whenever you're ready. Just call us and we will get transport to help you out."

The woman left and gave a warm smile, and Sage was left alone in the white room, the television on as white noise. It was hard, leaving the hospital, because at least there, she wouldn't have to be alone. With an audible sigh, she stood up and slipped her feet into a pair of flip flops before she walked to her small closet to get her street clothes out. She had been in the hospital for the last three months, battling a rather nasty case of pneumonia, and then a respiratory infection, due to her drowning. When her body had been found almost twelve hours after the particle accelerator explosion, she had ingested too much water, which filled her lungs. Unlike her fiancé, however, she miraculously lived.

Sage slipped on her jeans and her fitted blouse, folding her patient gown and setting it on the edge of her hospital bed. Ever since the boat went down, Sage hadn't been herself. Her father came down from Starling City to stay with her in her apartment for the first two weeks when she was in the hospital for her initial stay. She had to renew the lease to her apartment since she wouldn't be moving into the townhouse with Jason, which crushed her every time she paid her rent. Jason was supposed to be there, and she wished, often, that it would have been her who would have died and not him.

As she put her belongings in her small suitcase, she looked out of the old window and looked out at Central City, which seemed to have been continuing on as if nothing had happened. Sage watched the news, she knew how many people had been effected- so why did it look like no one cared? People died that night, people went missing that night, and yet the police still went after petty thieves and thoughtless murders. No one dared to go up against Dr. Wells, the man behind the tragedy. She was sure he felt remorse, but he was never truly punished, not the way he should have been.

"Ms. Dawson?" there was a knock on the door which pulled Sage's gaze away from the window and to the door, shaking her from her darkening thoughts.

"Yes, it's open." She replied, turning around to face who was at the door.

"Name's Yolanda, I'm from transport. Are you ready to leave?" the woman pushed a wheelchair up to the door and gave a slight smile, though it was clear she didn't want to be there.

"I suppose so, yeah." She grabbed her bag and moved to the chair, sitting down. It was always dumb that they made patients leave in a wheelchair…she supposed it was for lawsuits, no hospital wanted a patient to fall.

A few nurses said goodbye as she was pushed out of the room and downstairs.

"You got someone to pick you up?" the lady asked, glancing at her watch.

The answer was no. Sage had no one, no one at all, but rather than tell her that she simply nodded and stood up. "My ride should be here soon, you can go ahead and go. I'll be fine."

Without hesitation the woman spun the wheelchair around and went back into the hospital.

Sage looked out at the busy parking lot before she grabbed her phone and called a cab, who got there surprisingly fast.

"Where to?"

"Oak Ridge apartments, down on 8th." She replied, setting her bag beside her and buckling up the seat-belt. As the cab took off, she looked out the window and watched as cars sped by and people walked along the sidewalks. It really was as if nothing had changed, and that bothered her.

"Glad to be out of the hospital, eh? I'm sure you've got loads of friends and family ready to see you. Hospitals can be lonely places."

She knew the man was only trying to be nice and make conversation, but his words stung. "Yeah." She replied, unwilling to engage in any fight. Not today.

At her apartment she made her way into the living room and she set down her bag, looking around. Her dad had kept it just as it had been those first two weeks, but the thin layer of dust proved that no one had been there in a while. With another sigh, she walked to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water before she dealt with having to clean up.

She turned on the water faucet but as she touched the metal, she felt a sting. She pulled her hand away quickly and looked at the sink with a raised brow, grabbing a glass as she waited for the water. "Why isn't the water…" she trailed off as she moved her hand back to the faucet, as something very concerning was happening.

Water was coming out of the faucet, but not in the way it should have been. The steady stream of water seemed to glide through the air and to her hand, forming around it like a glove. Sage would have been terrified, had it not felt comforting. She couldn't describe the feeling of the bizarre water, but as it touched her skin, she didn't feel as lonely. It felt, strangely, as if this phenomenon was just as normal as breathing.

"Okay, so, let's think about this," she spoke aloud to herself. "If a person suddenly attracted water to their hand, what would that person do? Would they call the police, the fire department…" she let out a small exhale and the water jumped into the glass, and the water from the sink began to stream out normally from the faucet. Sage took a small step back and watched the sink before she bit at her lip. "I don't think the police would be much help but maybe..."

With a deep breath, and as she pushed her anger aside, she took out her phone and googled the number to STAR Labs. Something very abnormal was happening, and she had a sinking feeling that it was perhaps due to the night her boat sank: the night the particle accelerator malfunctioned.

Once she got hold of someone at the lab, she spoke as calmly as she could: "My name is Sage Dawson, and I need to speak to Dr. Wells. It's about the particle accelerator."


End file.
